XPost: alt.fan.rush-limbaugh, law.court.federal, alt.politics.liberalism   
   XPost: alt.politics.bush, alt.politics.usa.republican, talk.politics.guns   
   From: noreply@mixmin.net   
      
   WASHINGTON — The presidential campaign of Hillary Clinton and the   
   Democratic National Committee paid for research that was included in   
   a dossier made public in January that contained salacious claims   
   about connections between Donald J. Trump, his associates and   
   Russia.   
      
   A spokesperson for a law firm said on Tuesday that it had hired   
   Washington-based researchers last year to gather damaging   
   information about Mr. Trump on numerous subjects — including   
   possible ties to Russia — on behalf of the Clinton campaign and the   
   D.N.C.   
      
   The revelation, which emerged from a letter filed in court on   
   Tuesday, is likely to fuel new partisan attacks over federal and   
   congressional investigations into Russia’s attempts to disrupt last   
   year’s election and whether any of Mr. Trump’s associates assisted   
   in the effort.   
      
   The president and his allies have argued for months that the   
   investigations are politically motivated. They have challenged the   
   information contained in the dossier, which was compiled by a former   
   British spy who had been contracted by the Washington research firm   
   Fusion GPS.   
      
   The letter that was filed in court said that Fusion GPS began   
   working for the law firm, Perkins Coie, in April 2016. Written by   
   the firm’s general counsel, Matthew J. Gehringer, the letter said   
   that Fusion GPS had already been conducting the research “for one or   
   more other clients during the Republican primary contest.”   
      
   Perkins Coie was paid $12.4 million to represent the Clinton   
   campaign and the D.N.C. during the 2016 campaign, according to   
   filings. The role of the Clinton campaign and the national party in   
   funding the research for the dossier was first reported on Tuesday   
   by The Washington Post.   
      
   At the time that Democrats began paying for the research, Mr. Trump   
   was in the process of clinching the Republican presidential   
   nomination, and Ms. Clinton’s allies were scrambling to figure out   
   how to run against a candidate who had already weathered attacks   
   from Republican rivals about his shifting policy positions, his   
   character and his business record.   
      
   Fusion GPS hired Christopher Steele, a respected former British spy   
   with extensive experience in Russia, to conduct research into any   
   possible connections between Mr. Trump, his businesses, campaign   
   team and Russia.   
      
   Mr. Steele produced a series of memos that alleged a broad   
   conspiracy between the Trump campaign and the Russian government to   
   influence the 2016 election on behalf of Mr. Trump. The memos also   
   contained unsubstantiated accounts of encounters between Mr. Trump   
   and Russian prostitutes, and real estate deals that were intended as   
   bribes.   
      
   The contents of the memos circulated in Washington in late 2016, and   
   were briefed to Mr. Trump by senior American intelligence officials   
   during the presidential transition. The memos, which became known as   
   the “Steele Dossier,” were made public by Buzzfeed — sparking an   
   ongoing debate about their accuracy and about who funded the   
   research.   
      
   Fusion GPS was started by three former Wall Street Journal   
   employees. The firm worked directly with Perkins Coie and its lead   
   election lawyer, Marc Elias, according to the law firm spokesperson,   
   who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive information   
   about confidential business relationships. The law firm’s payments   
   to Fusion GPS for the Russia research ended just before Election   
   Day, the spokesperson said.   
      
   The spokesperson said that neither the Clinton campaign, nor the   
   D.N.C., was aware that Fusion GPS had been hired to conduct the   
   research.   
      
   Earlier this year, Mr. Elias had denied that he had possessed the   
   dossier before the election.   
      
   Anita Dunn, a veteran Democratic operative working with Perkins   
   Coie, said on Tuesday that Mr. Elias “was certainly familiar with   
   some of, but not all, of the information” in the dossier. But, she   
   said “he didn’t have and hadn’t seen the full document, nor was he   
   involved in pitching it to reporters.” And Mr. Elias “was not at   
   liberty to confirm Perkins Coie as the client at that point,” Ms.   
   Dunn said.   
      
   Brian Fallon, who served as a spokesman for the Clinton campaign, on   
   Tuesday wrote on Twitter that he did not know that Mr. Steele had   
      
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